Thursday, December 30, 2010

Herbs are excellent support for most everyone's immune system.

Andrographis Complex is the ideal short-term support for the immune and respiratory systems, especially when the immune system is under stress. This powerful formulation combines Andrographis leaf, Echinacea angustifolia root, Holy Basil leaf and essential oil to enhance its therapeutic action. To ensure optimal strength and quality, each tablet contains 10 mg of andrographolide and the important alkylamides from Echinacea angustifolia root, proven by research to be beneficial for the immune system.* For full product details, Click Here.

Contact your Valeo practitioner today to determine how best to use this support ~ when you refer clients, you receive $10.00 in Valeo bucks towards a service or product!!!!

Have you ever stopped to think about what the cumulative effect is of eating all those sweets?

BLOOD SUGAR BLUES

There's no doubt that people overeat during holidays. It's almost as much of a tradition as the holiday itself. But overindulgence in sweets has its price.

Whether you notice it (at first) or not, sweets in pies, cake, table sugar and even high carbohydrate foods (stuffing, pasta and white rice, for example) take their toll. Your body has to handle and process the sugars. This causes stress.

Your body starts to sing the blues.

SUGARY SYMPTOMS

The most notable signs of eating too many sweets are lack of energy, shakiness, dizziness, a feeling that your world is blacking out when you suddenly stand up, slight headache, drowsiness, and a cold sweat. You don't have to feel all of these at once to be affected.

When you eat sweets, your body goes to work. Your pancreas injects a hormone called insulin into your blood stream to remove the sugars. When this happens quickly, your blood sugar drops and you start experiencing the symptoms.

Simple sugars — the kinds in sweets — create the most problems.

They make your pancreas work extra hard. If the problem is chronic — you eat too many sweets and your pancreas is overworked — the result can be diabetes.

Millions of people are riding the edge of creating diabetes because they eat a constant diet of refined sugars.

ALTERNATIVE EATING PLEASURE

Watch yourself.

As crazy as it may sound to a sugar-holic, once you wean yourself off sugary treats, you don't really care if you eat them ever again.

This is because sugar is addictive and by removing the chemical you remove the urge to eat more and more. In the least though, you can eat consciously.

This means that instead of eating everything in front of you, you can pace yourself so that by the end of the night you aren't regretting what you've done. Be aware of what you eat and don't eat too much. Instead of taking a slice of two pies and two cakes, try a sampling of each. Don't add sweetener to your coffee.

Beets are high in an important compound known as betaine, a sweet tasting component also found in spinach. Betalains in beets are phytonutrients (but not flavonoids) that provide antioxidant protection.

Betanin and vulgaxanthin are the two best-studied betalains from beets, and both have been shown to provide antioxidant, anti-inflammatory, and detoxification support.

The detox support provided by betalains includes support of some especially important Phase 2 detox steps involving glutathione.

HOMOCYSTEINE & THE HEART-LIVER CONNECTION

Health researcher Helen Davies writes:

"Homocysteine occurs naturally in the body as a result of protein metabolism. Specifically, the amino acid methionine, which is found in the tissues of living organisms and we take in with our food, can either be used to synthesize more proteins for our body or, if this is not necessary, it converts to homocysteine in the liver.

"Under normal circumstances homocysteine subsequently converts to a water soluble product and is excreted with the urine. The whole chemical modification process takes place in the liver, the powerhouse of detoxification and metabolism."

Recently, increased levels of homocysteine have been linked to heart disease.

BENEFITS OF BETAINE

The benefits of betaine were shown in a study published in the American Journal of Clinical Nutrition demonstrating the ability to lower homocysteine levels. (The American Society for Nutritional Sciences J. Nutr. 133:1291-1295, May 2003)

The betaine, found in beets, appears to turn off the inflammatory response which can lead to heart disease, vascular disease, and liver disease.

Ask your Valeo Health & Wellness Center practitioner the next best thing to consuming beets ~ especially if you are not a fan!